Wiley Coyote

As a kid, I often went to the movies on Saturday afternoons. For 25 cents we could see back-to-back cowboy or war movies and there were always several Looney Tunes cartoons in between as well. Wiley Coyote was a recurrent character in these cartoons. I would laugh at his failed schemes to capture and eat the Road Runner, but I also felt rather sorry for him. Someone who put so much energy and creativity into accomplishing a goal should have been rewarded at least occasionally. A part of me was rooting for him to succeed while the other part knew full well that he would never do so.

I remember teaching a grade 12 religious education class. There were over 30 students in that classroom. They were bright kids and serious about their schoolwork, but many of them were in the religious education class mainly because it was a requirement for graduation. I could seldom get the class engaged in a discussion or see sparks of interest in the subject matter.

One day, one young lady seated at the very back of the classroom, raised her hand to make a comment. I don’t recall the topic we were involved in at the time, but I do vividly recall her comment. She said, “God has his opinion, and I have mine.” In cartoons, total dismay is often shown by having the jaw of one of the characters drop suddenly all the way down to the floor. That would have been a good rendering for what I felt inside at that moment. I did not respond to the young lady. What response could one have given to such a statement? I felt like Wiley at the end of the thousandth failed attempt to reach his goal, or in my case, to reach the students.

The Wiley Coyote syndrome of hoping beyond hope is still in me though: I still believe that even where my schemes and creativity fell short of producing results, God was and is still at work. I still pray for all the students I ever taught. The Road Runner does not stand a chance.